All That Remains
by bitchface-mcgee
Summary: 20 years ago the prison fell and any thoughts of a peaceful existence were forgotten, but life went on, and eventually there came a new generation raised in a world where survival was all that mattered. People travel alone now, but the Atlanta group were always stronger together than they were apart - how much longer can they last in this ever changing world? More info


**CONCEPT:** future!au following the future of man-kind, the first generation who were born into the world post-infection but now they're the adults  
**CANON PLOT POINTS:** all canon plot points are followed up until the fall of the prison in S3. after that a few of the characters have gone down different routes  
**CHARACTERS INVOLVED:** plenty of canon characters, along with lots of oc's too. most of the oc's are current canon characters future children**  
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**NOTE:** I got the idea for this story whilst working on some graphics for grown-up Carl and Judith, and hell I went with it. If you're interested in the fic there's plenty more about it and the characters who are going to be showing up on my tumblr page (link at the bottom). But for now, I really hope you enjoy!

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The woods should never be quiet.

You should hear the sound of the creatures scuttling and calling out to one another, leaves rustling in the breeze, a herd of walkers in the distance. Some of these sounds were more desirable than others, it went without saying, but all of them offered some kind of comfort in that they were familiar. The silence was anything but. The silence made it feel as though your senses were completely cut off, making you vulnerable.

Judith Grimes couldn't afford to be vulnerable. Not now.

If she was going to survive she had to hunt, and to hunt she had to have her wits about her.

As she raised her bow she felt her arms buckle for just a moment, before she made them tense as though her joints were made of welded steel. She'd spotted a squirrel two trees away, which would require a shot similar to ones she had made a thousand times over. Her posture was stiff, breathing even, hands strong; she was ready to take it, but instead of releasing her arrow she just stood there, staring helplessly at the rodent until it scurried off far out of sight. Her arms were still firm, braced to hit a target that was no longer there, and despite her knowing that it was gone Judith couldn't seem to move.

She hadn't realised she was crying until her vision was blurred and her cheeks were cold.

It had been two weeks. Two weeks of tracking, two weeks of running, two weeks of complete solitude. The quiet had never bothered her before, what with living in a big group. In fact it was a gift easily overlooked by most but Judith treasured it, finding a certain peace in the silence. That was then, when she knew the sound of familiar voices would replace it soon enough. Now it was nothing but deafening.

In the absence of noise she was left with nothing but her thoughts, or more specifically her memories. Every time she closed her eyes she saw him shooting, saw the gun jamming, and most of all Judith saw her brother dying. That part she'd thankfully not seen, but her mind kept coming up with new and sickening ways in which they might have torn him to shreds. Her arms had finally dropped as she imagined what was left of her brother's corpse stumbling through the trees, and as they fell limp, the arrow she held dropped with a gentle thud to the forest floor.

The camp was suppose to be north of the lake. That was where they were when she and Carl had left, and where they should have been when they returned. They were suppose to be waiting for them; after all, they were their family. They weren't suppose to leave them behind.

The plan was a simple one. She and Carl would go out in the morning, careful to avoid the near by Red-Zone to check the surrounding area of their new camp. When they'd found the lake at the bottom of a quarry her brother had insisted they stay a while despite being so close to danger. He said it reminded him of somewhere he'd stopped as a kid, before Judith was even born, and that for a while they'd been safe there. Happy, even.

A few of the others had expressed their worries about staying put too long, so Judith had volunteered to go out scouting. Of course Carl wouldn't let her go alone so had tagged along, even though his baby sister insisted that she could do it without his supervision. A few walkers were nothing to her, and that close to a Red-Zone they weren't the real threat anyway.

So she hadn't even anticipated the herd.

They'd been walking a few hours in a continuous loop that gradually grew out from camp, until they'd come to the base of a hill. Judith had heard them before she saw them, and as her eyes trailed up the steep terrain beside her she saw in the trees a swaying sea of the undead heading straight for them. They were too close to outrun, but still Carl drew his gun and started shooting, holding off as many as he could whilst screaming for Judith to run and not look back. She didn't want to leave him, but he'd promised he would be right behind her. He'd _promised_.

By the time she'd looked back it was too late, and all she could do then was run and warn the others before they lost everything.

She ran as fast as her legs would take her, not giving in to the exhaustion that so desperately wanted to be eased. She had to tell them; she had to _save_ them. It wasn't until the distant groans of the walkers grew silent that she realised she didn't know that patch of the forest, and she knew that in her panic she'd ran without realising what direction she was heading it, which happened to be even farther away from camp. Her heart dropped into her gut as she skidded to a halt and changed her course, for the only thing that ran through her mind was that she had failed them as she had failed her brother.

Judith had expected to see the remnants of a massacre when she arrived back to camp, but instead there was nothing.

They'd already left.

At first when she started following their trail east she was relieved at the thought that they'd all made it out in time, but then the hours turned into days, and the days into weeks, and with their trail long since having gone cold she could feel with each passing moment the chances of finding her people growing slimmer and slimmer.

Standing there in the forest, a small and broken girl, the realisation suddenly hit her that there was no hope. Not any more.

A cascade of emotions that she'd been suppressing suddenly came tumbling down on her, and in a fit of rage Judith threw her bow away as she remembered who'd given it her, a stray sob breaking from her lips as she did. She was beyond livid, angry to a point where there were no words to describe what she felt, and all because they'd left her behind. There was no denying that they'd done the right thing in doing so, especially if they'd spotted the herd, but god did she hate them for leaving her to face this hell alone.

In the same moment she was distraught over the loss she'd suffered. A year before Rick had died. Her father had a peaceful death, the kind he deserved, where the people he loved could sit by his side and remind him that he was a good man in his last hours. When he was finally gone Judith couldn't ever recall having felt pain like it, but that was nothing compared to losing Carl. Give her a peaceful death to deal with any day rather than this. Yes, death was an every day occurrence in her world, especially ones as gruesome as that she believed her brother had endured, but the thought of him being in pain crippled her. She wouldn't wish an end like that on her worst enemy, never mind her own blood.

Collapsing to the floor, Judith allowed the sobs to rack through her body whilst her fingers threaded into her hair, ready to pull the dirty strands clean out of her scalp. Weakness wasn't allowed, but in moments like this it was better to confront it than to let it build. If she couldn't even shoot a squirrel without being reminded of what she'd lost then she needed the momentary release of grieving it.

That much Judith could allow herself.

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_**The first chapter isn't very long, but of course as more characters are introduced and the plot develops they're going to grow. For now I just want to set up Judith's narrative before I jump straight into another one!**_

_If you're at all interested in this fiction and the characters to come please go to the tumblr account **mycrella** and add tagged/all+that+remains after the url for more. If you're wondering about the Red-Zones and you don't see them mentioned here, don't worry, all will become clear on them soon enough._

_Anyway, I hope you liked it. If you did and you feel like leaving a review that'd be awesome. Thank you!_


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